Artist Spotlight Kevin Wada

Kevin Wada's fashion illustrations and caricatures have a wry wit and authority mixed with a slick gay sensibility.  

In Kevin's own words:
I was born in the greater Los Angeles area, raised in the San Gabriel Valley and went to college at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.  I've been here in San Francisco for about five years and couldn't be happier.  

Growing up, I was the kid who let his older sister dress him up in makeup and pearls, who would slip into his mom's closet and try on her heels. I had all girl friends on the playground till the 6th grade when I realized there was a "proper" way to be a boy.

Good student all my life — though studying illustration in college was where I got the most friction for my work. My teachers would critique my work, saying that all my people were "too pretty." I struggled with that all through school, trying to dirty up my figures and make them more real.  After I graduated I decided, fuck it, and embraced these "too pretty" people and that's when I really delved into fashion illustration.

I created an internet buzz about myself when my friend and fellow illustrator, Max Wittert, and I decided to revamp the women of X-men as fashion illustrations. I kept the series going with a few rounds and they caught on with the geek world.

I would love to see a resurgence of fashion illustration in editorials and advertisements. Photography and photoshop have inundated the market and I think to truly standout we need to look back. Illustration would be a great way to refresh the industry.

For more of Kevin's work, go here.